As much as $60 billion in U.S. funds has been lost to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade through lax oversight of contractors, poor planning and payoffs to warlords and insurgents, an independent panel investigating U.S. wartime spending estimates.

In its final report to Congress, the Commission on Wartime Contracting said the figure could grow

The time has arrived where we must understand the realities of the dark forces amongst us.

The...cyberattack comes as the accelerated public disclosure of tens of thousands of previously unreleased State Department [Superpower] cables...has raised new concerns about the exposure of [duh] confidential U.S. embassy sources.

That has created a fresh source of diplomatic setbacks and embarrassment for the Obama administration

The time has arrived where we must understand the realities of the dark forces amongst us.

French Embrace of NATO’s Power Is a Huge Step Forward for the World: View

The government of France has concluded that its national security can best be served through active leadership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. We [Bloomberg] agree.

Sarkozy, along with Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, deserves enormous credit for leading NATO’s successful [?] support for the rebels who overthrew [?] the regime of Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi.

Acting through NATO gave France access to U.S. capabilities such as air-to-air refueling, intelligence collection and long-range drones that the French and other European allies lack.

NATO’s partnerships in the Middle East made it easier for nations such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to join the anti-Qaddafi coalition.

Ironically, it was President Barack Obama’s decision to [duh] cede leadership of the Libya operation to the French and British that showed the government in Paris that it could use NATO to achieve its goals, much as the U.S. has done in the past.

The time has arrived where we must understand the realities of the dark forces amongst us.

Russian expert Alexander Prokhanov said that Syria under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad is working on implementing the political reforms the President has promised, the latest of which was related to adopting a new constitution that guarantees party pluralism and the issued law on freedom of media.

"Syria is facing a media war," said Prokhanov in an interview with Russia Today TV, expressing hope that Russia will not repeat [>] its mistakes in Libya which opened the way before some countries to bombard the Libyan territories without international authorization.

The time has arrived where we must understand the realities of the dark forces amongst us.